


Desire

by shadowolfhunter



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Dreamwalker, F/F, F/M, Love, Lucifer and Michael are Twins, M/M, Piano, Private Investigator Lucifer, Redemption, Witch - Freeform, a kind of fixit, additional relationships to be added - Freeform, au post season 3, helping the victims, punishing the guilty, they need each other, witch gifts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-02 01:58:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14534202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowolfhunter/pseuds/shadowolfhunter
Summary: Chloe married Pierce, and after a final battle with Maze, Lucifer leaves LA. Forever.But things are never really that simple, and he misses his friends.Two years pass, and when Dan calls him about a case, it brings Lucifer and his new partner back to LA. Marcus is pissed, but the Lucifer who left and Lucifer who returns are two very different creatures. The battle lines are drawn, and perhaps even humanity hangs in the balance.





	1. Re-Birth

**Author's Note:**

> Draws heavily from The Last Witch Hunter, and LA Confidential for its themes... and the Agatha Christie Novel "Towards Zero". In which the monster is truly Marcus Pierce, and the Avenging Angel quite definitely Lucifer Morningstar.
> 
> Maze is a bad-ass, she's a demon, what the hell did anyone really expect?
> 
> Number of chapters is up for change.

Dan checked the address a couple of times in slight disbelief, then pushed the door open and entered the darkened club. Decorated in dark woods, slightly period in feel, laid out on several floors, a bit like Lux had been, there was a strange atmosphere to the place. Lucifer, but not Lucifer.

The piano on the mezzanine was at least something familiar.

Dan didn’t know why, but he had expected Lucifer to reopen Lux, or some version of it, this place was darker, different. There were undercurrents that Dan could feel, but there was something elusive about it. 

“We’re closed.” The voice from the shadows behind him made Dan spin round, his breath caught in his throat.

She moved towards him with a steely grace, Luce had always been surrounded by beautiful people, but this one was different, something about the way she moved, the way the green eyes flicked over every inch of his body, clearly writing him off as a threat, which made Dan bristle, but the eyes held a level of interest or perhaps curiosity that made him blush.

After Charlotte’s death over two years ago and all the events that followed, Dan had buried himself in his work and his daughter, and outside of occasional long distance calls with Lucifer, he hadn’t wavered from that. Curiously his friendship with the Devil hadn’t been changed by the distance, but rather grown and matured.

This woman was different to the kinds of people who normally gravitated to his friend.

Raven black hair, plaited, hanging half way down her back, funky clothes, she looked young, probably in her twenties, but somehow impossibly ancient at the same time, the piercing green eyes seemed to be able to read his soul.

Somewhere, a goose marched over his grave. Dan shivered. Cleared his throat.

“It’s alright El, Detective Daniel isn’t here to arrest you.”

Dan spun round again. “Lucifer.”

The tall dark devil nodded, moved into the spotlight, which prompted a little smirk from Dan, that was his devil always in the spotlight, but then he saw the devil’s face lit by the unforgiving gaze of the yellow light..

The scar was huge, it bisected Lucifer’s left cheek from just below the lower eyelid, swept in a strange curve down towards his jawline while part of it curled away beneath his cheekbone.

“Luce…” Dan choked on his words. “I… didn’t know.” he finished lamely.

Lucifer’s smile was a pathetic wisp of a thing, “I never meant for you to know, Daniel.” He said.

“But here we are.” Dan whispered. Time hung for a second, then Dan did what his heart inspired him to do when he saw the devil’s damaged face. He stepped forward to hug his friend.

Two years ago, Lucifer would have frozen up like a post. He hesitated still, but wrapped his arms around Dan and hugged him back. That was new.

“Well this is all very adorbs, but we’ve got work to do. Isn't there a crime scene out there you want us to examine?”

They stepped back, Dan a little embarrassed. 

“And you are?” Dan’s collar felt as though it was strangling him, but he schooled his features into a neutral expression, somehow this new companion of Lucifer’s seemed even scarier than Maze. He slammed the door on that memory, nothing good would come of that.. 

Lucifer stepped forward to make the introductions. “Elodie St. Pierre, Daniel Espinoza. She’s my partner.“ He didn't qualify Dan's status, he didn't need to.

Partner covered a wide territory, but Dan really wasn’t going to get into that now. El, as Lucifer had called her, was right, they had work to do.

Not that he wasn’t curious, particularly when Lucifer bowed his head, looking a little shaky for a moment and El laid her hand on his arm. Nothing sexual about it, but Dan sensed a fierce protectiveness in both of them, and wondered.

Elodie was moving away in the direction of the door, and Dan nudged Lucifer with his elbow, confused again. “Where’s she going?”

“El has her ways, Detective, we need to give her room to work.”

“Are you two coming?” the woman’s tone was a mixture of playful and challenge, and Dan got the distinct feeling that she was laughing at him. He huffed a little at that but Lucifer was moving to follow and Dan caught up.

 

If anything, Elodie St. Pierre’s driving was even scarier than Lucifer Morningstar’s, a fact that seemed to terrify even the Devil if Lucifer’s white-knuckled grip on the edge of the passenger seat was anything to go by, El drove her Maserati Quattroporte as though it was an extension of her body, or perhaps a broomstick Dan thought a little uncharitably, he was grateful he was in the backseat, and there was a neatly placed grab handle that he could latch on to.

He’d never met her or talked to her, but Lucifer had spoken about her, and Dan was grateful his friend had someone to be there for him. It was perhaps a little weird that his friendship with Lucifer had blossomed when the devil left LA, leaving Dan with his new number in case of emergencies, he’d said.

He was brought back to the present, by being tossed forward against his seatbelt, as the huge Italian car screeched to a halt.

Since his eyes had been screwed shut for most of the journey, Dan couldn’t have said how they arrived at their destination in record time, he was rather glad he didn’t know. For someone who didn’t come from LA, Elodie St. Pierre seemed to know her way around. 

It was a pretty hillside, high above the ocean, in one of those rare parts of coastline that had little habitation on it. They could see Ella quite clearly, in the gully below, the lab tech going about her business, and Lucifer hung back seemingly reluctant to step back into his old life. Torn between staying with his friend, and following his friend’s terrifying new friend. Dan opted to follow the woman, leaving Lucifer to deal with his issues in his own time. 

“Hi, I’m Ella,” beyond a cursory nod to acknowledge the lab tech El crouched by the body, shutting out the woman’s chattering, reaching out with her gift, she probed what was left of the dead man`s mind. 

Not much left to play with, a fleeting glimpse of an image, a blurred outline, the killer obscured. And a strange vibe that she could not place, but tucked away to examine later. She needed an emotional charge to ramp things up a bit. Still ignoring Ella’s chattering, El strode over to Lucifer. 

Their lips met, and Lucifer pulled her closer, understanding what she needed, he poured all of his bruised, confused feelings into his kiss, she poured the love and care she knew he needed to try and handle the situation, and they hadn’t even seen Decker yet.

A throat cleared behind them, El reached out with her gift again, to the living this time, so this was the infamous Chloe Decker, felt Luce flinch in her arms, and kept her arms around his waist. He even leaned into her a little, shielding the left side of his face from the Detective’s gaze. 

“I suppose we should be grateful you’re not naked.”

Chloe’s tone was dry, waspish, but El could feel the jolt of tension the sight of her partner had given the Detective. El held on to her temper, she knew literally everything that had passed between Lucifer and the beautiful blonde detective, even the bits he had never told her. On the nights where Lucifer’s nightmares were too much, and she walked through his dreams to soothe him, while her body pressed against his and her arms held him tight, her gift may have been from the black, but she had never used it for bad.

The turmoil wasn’t unexpected, but Lucifer was still unprepared for his reaction to Chloe’s presence. She was a married woman now, he hoped that she was happy, he sensed she wasn’t and that burned. He swallowed, eased back from El, and plastered that too big, too bright smile on his face, slightly lopsided due to the scarring, but enough to throw her off the scent. He hoped.

“Detective.”

Chloe Decker-Pierce had been prepared to deal, even though she had been outraged when Dan had called Lucifer. The fact that she had no idea that Lucifer and Dan were still in contact, had been ever since Lucifer had left LA on the day of her wedding. Maze had disappeared at the same time, and Chloe had assumed that Maze had returned to Lucifer and the two of them were gone off on some adventure somewhere and would come back to LA.

As time went on, it was clear that Lucifer had no intention of coming back, Chloe tamped down on her anger and hurt and threw herself into being Marcus’ wife and Trixie’s mother. Two years down the line, with Trixie spending more time with Dan than with her, and a distance she had never believed possible having grown up between mother and daughter, Chloe had come to realise that something was very wrong in her marriage, and not just with Trixie.

Lucifer was here. She tried to ignore the rush of feeling that invoked. Then he turned round, that bright, off-key smile that he always pinned to his face when he was confused by his feelings and trying not to show it, a smile she had seen several times a day before he left LA, but all of that disappeared in a rush when she saw the scar.

Cut from eye to jawline, a curiously fractal shape, which continued back beneath his cheekbone, her throat tightened and became dry when she recalled the shape of Maze’s demon daggers. She was a detective after all, she didn’t need to ask, she knew what made that gash. Their eyes met, and her question died on her lips, as his eyes pleaded with her not to ask.

This was worse than his back.

It answered one question. Maze was out there, somewhere. Not with Lucifer. And it posed a whole host of others, none of them particularly pleasant. Chloe glanced past her old partner, to the young woman with him, green eyes, black hair, young, beautiful, and something about her suggested that this person was an even more formidable threat than Maze was. At the same time wondering what kind of woman would be a more formidable threat than a bounty hunter with some vicious fight skills, Chloe stepped forward, hand extended. “And you are?”

El kept her free hand on Lucifer's back, she could feel the slight shiver that was coursing through him as all the old emotions rose to the surface, and it was going to be a hard night, she could tell. She took Chloe's extended hand and shook, “Elodie St. Pierre, Lucifer's partner.” from the minute tremor in Chloe's fingers she could tell that the older woman was not as indifferent as she was trying to appear. She reached forward with her gift, probing a little.

There was a wealth of evasion in that statement, but Chloe was not going to call her on it. They were at a crime scene, there was a time and a place, this was not it. Chloe stepped forward “Ella, what do we have? “

“Caucasian male… “ Ella looked up from her clipboard, “LUCIFER! “ Before anyone could blink, Ella was out of the gully where the body was lying and wrapping her arms around Lucifer`s waist. 

The tall man flinched, as he usually did, then he looked down into Ella’s excited beaming face, and his arms closed slowly around his diminutive friend. 

Something tightened around Chloe’s gut. Lucifer was standoffish with Ella, that was the way it had always been, him spontaneously hugging her back was something completely new. Chloe didn’t like it.

Two years. She was a married woman. Two whole years without Lucifer Morningstar screwing up her emotions, he comes back and she`s right back where it all went wrong. Marcus would not be pleased. She really didn't want to upset him, she should have vetoed Dan bringing Lucifer back. 

“Do you have anything useful for the case? “ Chloe turned on Lucifer. 

“No, but I suggest you let El work, Detective. “ He gave her a look which she found difficult to interpret and stepped away, not a lot, but enough to confirm the separation between them.

As much as it hurt, as much as Chloe wanted the easy partner that she had grown used to, taken for granted, back, she couldn’t blame him. She had chosen Marcus, Lucifer would never seem to commit, and she had grown tired of the pain in her heart.

So she had married Marcus Pierce of her own free will, only to find, exactly as Lucifer said, that she didn’t know him at all. Maybe. There was nothing she could actually put her finger on, but sometimes she caught a word, or a look, the tension she could feel, but had no explanation for. Sometimes, she was convinced that she was crazy. Then Trixie moved in with Dan, and as hard as that was, in a way she felt relief, which only made her feel crazier. But Trixie was now safe. Safe? Why did she even think that? Marcus was her husband. New father to Trixie.

Except he was less of a father than Lucifer had been.

She straightened her spine, gave Ella a look, “back to work,” and turned her back on Lucifer Morningstar, on all the unresolved issues and the new partner.

Time to focus, she would think about it all later.


	2. Talking About Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucifer reveals his big secret...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So very not happy with this chapter, and it may get revisited and re-edited at some point, but for now, to advance things a bit here it is.
> 
> Sorry it's late.
> 
> This is the point where what El is is revealed, using something from The Last Witch Hunter.

“We need to talk. “ Lucifer set the rather full tray down in front of Dan and Trixie, who brightened visibly at the bowl of ice cream sitting amongst the collected drinks and the plate of cookies next to it.

There was a sudden swoosh from above, and a hand reached out and snatched a cookie from the plate. Lucifer took an irritated swipe at the hand with the bar towel he was holding in his right hand. 

“I wish you wouldn't do that. “

The chuckle grew more distant as Trixie looked up towards the ceiling, startled. Her eyes grew round as she stared at Lucifer’s new friend. 

El swung from the ceiling, two bungee cords attached to a belt around her waist. Swooping and falling, she flipped over effortlessly. As she drew level with the table, she shrugged carelessly, grinning at Trixie and Dan she said, “He can fly, I can't. This is the closest I’m gonna get. “ she winked at Trixie. “Wanna try?”

Dan sighed and rolled his eyes. He could see it was obviously safe, but he really didn't want his little monkey swinging from the ceiling. 

“Later El. “

Dan glanced at Lucifer in surprise. He would have expected Lucifer to be all over that. Encouraging Trixie to take risks. He met the Devil’s rather sombre eyes and saw something there that made him shiver slightly. Lucifer looked scared. 

He would have expected El to push back, like Maze had always done, but when he looked back, Lucifer’s bungee jumping sidekick had disappeared, and a few minutes later she joined them at the table. 

“Daniel, you and Beatrice have the right to know the whole truth. Why I’m here. Why I got things so horribly wrong last time.” Lucifer’s tone was sad, and frightened, but resolute, and El laid her hand on his and squeezed his fingers in a gesture of support. 

After a moment, Lucifer continued. “In the interests of full disclosure, upfront, nothing hidden… You know what I am, you also know what I was, before I fell. Well it seems that my Father” his voice cracked on the word, El’s fingers squeezed a little more. “it seems I had a purpose in LA, Chloe was in my path for a reason.” He bent his head. “The purpose was not for me to meet Chloe, or any of the subsequent events. It was for me to meet Beatrice.”

Dan’s eyes went from confused to a hell no expression, irritated Lucifer shook his head, “don't be ridiculous, hardly that.“ He scoffed. El cleared her throat. Lucifer subsided. 

He looked down at the table, at the drink by his hand. Cleared his throat twice. “I’m Beatrice’s Guardian Angel.”

He looked up at Dan, his heart in his eyes. “I’m Beatrice’s Guardian Angel. “

Dan was about to scoff, but the wealth of wonder, even fear in Lucifer's tone, humility, something he had never believed Lucifer capable of, stopped him. 

He stared wide-eyed at Lucifer, whose eyes held his for a moment and then dropped again. Slowly the enormity of what that might mean began to sink in. 

El watched the two men drowning in a sea of emotions and stepped in. “We have to save Chloe, and stop Cain. “

Dan pulled himself back from the brink with an effort and focused on Lucifer's sidekick… Or whatever the hell she was. 

“I'm a witch, Dan.“

Dan’s reality wobbled a little.

“El is a dream walker, Daniel.” Lucifer's tone was still rather wobbly, fond and slightly scared all at once. “One of the most powerful witches in existence.“

“I thought witches weren't real” Dan tried to claw some reality back. 

“We exist Daniel,” El tilted her head, assessing him, “we just don't go round making ourselves known to everyone. The fewer people who know that magic is actually real, the better. Magic in human hands has a tendency to end badly. Or not work at all.”

“She saved me.” Lucifer was still staring at the table, and then Trixie moved. She slid round the booth, and squeezed herself right up to Lucifer. Wrapping her arms around his torso she cuddled up close. Cheek resting against his arm, she beamed up at him. “You're really my Guardian Angel?”

He didn't even flinch, he nodded. That was new. Trixie’s mind began to brim with possibilities, and Lucifer’s expression tightened a fraction. “As much as I approve your burgeoning sense of deals and bargaining Spawn, I am not to be used to get you out of things,” he looked at Dan with a small smile that Dan found difficult to interpret. “Your father wouldn't approve.”

El kept her own counsel on the tone of Lucifer's voice. Time enough for them to figure that out on their own. There were more pressing problems.  
“I know that you, and Chloe, never believed me about Cain… Marcus Pierce…” Lucifer continued. “Just take it from me, that the situation was bad two years ago, now, it’s worse.”

Dan thought for a second. Lucifer didn’t lie. Sometimes he found loopholes or didn’t tell the entire truth, but he never lied. However fantastical it seemed, he was the Devil. And things had been going downhill for sometime. Chloe was jumpy in a way that she had never been before. 

“I buy that.”

Lucifer’s jaw tightened. “I was shown a vision.” 

Dan turned his gaze to El, she shook her head, “not me, I can only walk through the past, not the future.”

From the pain on Lucifer’s face, it wasn’t a future that Dan wanted anything to do with.

 

Lucifer was back in town, Cain was curiously happy with that. He’d failed to kill the Devil two years ago, although taking Chloe from him, and subverting his demon to Cain’s side had been enormously satisfying. Two years spent building an empire, controlling things, removing the odd gang leader here, drug dealer there, using Mazikeen as she was meant to be used. Keeping Chloe off balance, even managing to divide the detective from her nuisance of a child, everything was breaking Marcus’ way.

Tying up the loose end of the fallen archangel would be immensely satisfying.

 

Chloe was distressed. Even seeing Lucifer again caused an ache in her heart. Their friendship once the sustaining force of her life, was broken and twisted and fragile. The scar on Lucifer’s face, and his new friend… all of that just emphasised how distant they were from how it was before Marcus came into their lives.

Deep down inside, she cursed the day that she accepted Marcus’ proposal. So hurt by Lucifer’s crazy actions she had made the mistake of a lifetime. Now she was on the inside in the department, since everyone wanted to be on the in with the Lieutenant, but she had never felt so alone.

Ella was still on her side, but they had seen less and less of Linda, the therapist seemed unhappy with Chloe’s choices.

 

Ella looked over the evidence but there was little to do, all the fingerprints were just smudges, like so many murders just lately, brutal but with minimal useable evidence. She only hoped that Lucifer’s new friend had something, because otherwise this was going in the unsolved pile, and that hurt.

The scar on Lucifer’s face hurt too, she almost freaked out about it, but he was still Lucifer, still handsome despite the damage. And she guessed that mentioning it would hurt him, so even though it was a shock, she squeezed him extra tight. Usually he was squirming on the inside, even if he gave some of the best hugs, but hugging her back, for a few seconds Ella basked in the joy of a proper Lucifer hug with no squirming. He was different, subdued, but still he never broke character.

 

El slipped into bed next to Lucifer and wrapped him in her arms. Just seeing Chloe had been a strain, telling Dan and Beatrice the truth, spilling all the information they had, he’d been exhausted by all the emotions.

He was asleep, but turned to her instinctively. El laid a hand on his damaged cheek, closing her eyes she reached out with her gift, stepping into his dark and unsettling dream, the same loop played over and over. Mazikeen, demon face exposed, sacrificing Chloe while Cain smiled in triumph.


	3. The Players

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maze has been busy in the two years that Lucifer left LA. She's a demon. What was she supposed to do.
> 
> And for the first time in millennia, Michael and Lucifer are in the same place. Sort of.

“I told you never to come here.” Pierce was pissed. Mazikeen had her uses, but her constant flouting of his authority was grating on his nerves again.

Maze grinned, stretching up, catlike, from her place on the Pierce family couch, she got to her feet. Her smile insolent. 

“Lucifer’s back.” If Pierce had expected shock, or something, he was severely disappointed.

“I know.” Her tone was dismissive. “What’s it to me? He left me remember.”

Marcus’ turn to smile. “I thought you would be all over that. Opportunity to get back into his good graces and all.” His hint was heavy. Maze was not a subtle creature.

Maze was never going to admit that she had already tried. That somehow she had been denied entry to Lucifer’s new club, that she hadn’t been able to reach him like she used to either. That maybe those bridges were now burned.

She had once promised Lucifer that she would be by his side forever. She’d broken that promise. She had tortured him because he loved and put Chloe Decker first, and that hurt.

She hunted bounty, and she kept in with Pierce when Lucifer disappeared. The man had grown in power since Lucifer had been gone, and Maze liked having a piece of that power. But she missed her Lord of Hell.

Pierce gave her his usual chilly, unimpressed expression. “Try.” He said. She turned to leave, “and Maze.” She gave a little nod, the only indication that she heard him. “Don’t come back here again.”

So she laid up in odd corners, trying to find the opportunity to get close to her former master. It was not easy. She couldn’t cross the threshold of his club. She had a few theories about that one, and his new guardian not-angel (Maze burned with resentment) was close by at all times. Maze didn’t really know what she was, but it was clear that she was something more. Maze could smell it on her.

 

El watched her boss closely. They had yet to encounter Marcus Pierce, but the immortal’s tentacles were everywhere. He’d built one hell of an empire in the two years that Lucifer had been in New Orleans. Chloe’s cold suspicion wasn’t helping either. El knew it was a cover for the woman’s real feelings, but that was another layer of stress and pain that Lucifer didn’t need.

Their most pressing problem wasn’t even the case. Although the actual killer was unclear, the puppet master pulling the strings was Marcus Pierce. Dan was more at risk than he ever had been. Lucifer might have been there for Trixie, but Dan, was important to the Devil too.

Three nights in a row, El had walked through Marcus Pierce’s dreams, and it had taken all of her skills not to be detected. Even getting in was tough The man was sneaky and manipulative, and had obviously encountered her kind before, though possibly not a dreamwalker. Immortality had given him an edge, which he clearly had no remorse about using against mortals.

She found herself feeling sorry for Chloe Decker. Even though the woman had chosen poorly of her own free will, no one deserved that kind of contempt from their life partner.

And then there was Mazikeen. That hurt ran deep. Lucifer’s scarred cheek told its own story. He could have been perfect again, two of his brothers had offered to heal the scar, but Lucifer wouldn’t let it go. It was his connection to Maze. El knew the bounty hunting demon wanted back in, but she was too close to Pierce, and El wasn’t going to take the chance. Unless Lucifer told her to let the demon into their little fold, Maze was staying outside.

That didn’t mean of course that El wasn’t going to watch her. And watch her very carefully. Then there’s the other thing. “I know you’re there.” She says in a conversational tone. There’s a sigh from the shadows behind her, and a figure detaches itself from the dark. She waits until he pulls out the stool next to her and settles himself, before reaching over for a glass, pouring him a drink. “You can’t sneak up on me, so why don’t you quit trying.”

He fixes her with a glare. She’s used to it by now, knows that he doesn’t actually mean anything by it, it’s just strange looking at Lucifer’s perfect face staring back at her, knowing that it isn’t Lucifer.

Footsteps behind them. “Michael.” Lucifer’s flat tone holds a wealth of suppressed emotion. El just knows that tonight is going to be a bad one. Everything about being back in LA is stressing Lucifer, his fear for his friends, his unfinished business with Chloe and the tragic way that ended, just all of it.

“Luce.” Michael’s accent mirrors Lucifer’s, and El can’t quite decide if he’s doing it to annoy his brother, or if he wants to feel closer to him. There’s pain there. Michael is dressed like Lucifer, three piece suits, pocket squares, if anything even more flamboyant than Luce himself. Today it’s a powder-blue pinstripe three piece suit with a snowy white shirt and an unnecessarily florid pocket square in a purple pattern which makes Lucifer flinch on spotting it, and his lips compress into a firm line as he refuses to pull his brother up on it.

They annoy the hell out of each other, but despite everything, there is still a bond there. Sometimes when Lucifer isn’t looking, El catches a look of soul-crushing pain on Michael’s face, and knows, whatever stubborn beliefs they both live by, Michael misses his twin very badly.

The tragic part, to El’s mind, is that Lucifer misses Michael, equally badly.

Sometimes she feels as though she really needs to sit down with their so-called omniscient, omnipotent father and explain a few things to him. How his confused, neglected children are so damaged they don’t even realise they are worthy of love. How none of the rebellion, the fall, the pain that Lucifer suffered ever had to happen.

They’ve known each other two years, but El would give her life to protect Lucifer, and he knows that. He’s never careless of that gift.

Michael stares at his brother. Lucifer’s arrogance has been tempered by pain. His time on earth has changed him more than Michael could imagine, falling in love, having his heart broken, fleeing to a different city, when surely returning to hell would have been much easier, and why didn’t Lucifer take the easy route out? What made him stay?

So Michael had come to earth. Found his brother, found a night-club with a piano, and a witch called Elodie St. Pierre, and had been completely fascinated.

An apparently mortal, not-quite woman, who knew exactly what he was, and Michael had attempted to frighten her with his wings, and his armour, and El had just given him that universal look which said that she thought he was full of it… and he’d flown off, angry. Not even seeing Lucifer. Which had been something of a mistake, he could grudgingly admit, because he’d hurt his twin even more.

They were in the same space once again. They could feel each other’s emotions, and Michael wasn’t happy with the side-effects of being on earth amongst humans, he wanted those pesky human-type emotions back behind walls where they belonged, which made Lucifer snort with bitter laughter, and Michael went to punch his brother in the face… and it all fell apart there.

For the first time in millennia, they didn’t meet on opposite sides, but the same side of the fence. It felt different. They moved together and held each other with the speed of a glacial shift, neither really knowing what they were doing, just going with it.

So they hugged.

The next day they were back keeping their distance, pretending none of it ever happened. Hugs. Forgiveness. Nah!

El sighed and rolled her eyes. She wasn’t insensible of Michael’s interest in her, just cautious. She wasn’t about to hurt Lucifer, they relied on each other. She wasn’t entirely certain where Michael stayed when he wasn’t with them, and she had to admit to a little surprise when he turned up in LA, the day after they did.

“So.” She turned to the twins. “We have to stop Cain.” She studied Michael for a few seconds, “really did your Dad have even the vaguest idea what he was doing when he made that man immortal?”

Michael bristled. Lucifer did not.

El went on. “So he’s been around long enough, to build himself successful criminal enterprises, of course, he used to want to die, but he’s also enjoyed the fruits of his activities and damaged a lot of people along the way. Luce killed him once, and even that didn’t take. Now everyone’s at risk.” She paused, stared hard at Michael who flinched but still said nothing. “You in?”

He nodded.


End file.
